General Who Supported Women in Combat Says: ‘No More!’

Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yiftach Ron-Tal: ““Expanding female service will be a grave mistake that will damage the prowess of the army."

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Gil Ronen, 23/07/11 22:04

Netanyahu, women combat soldiers.

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Major General (res.) Yiftach Ron-Tal has joined a growing camp in the military that objects to widening women’s participation in combat roles.

Ron-Tal’s voice is significant because he was one of the generals who led the process of integration of women into combat units a decade ago.

In an interview with Voice of Israel government-run radio, Ron-Tal said that “It turns out that the amount of stress fractures suffered by soldiers is dozens of percentage points higher among women than among men. As a result, the female soldiers are not required to carry as much weight.”

“I think that women’s service in combat roles in the IDF should not be widened,” he said. “I cannot even imagine a female soldier serving inside a tank or in elite infantry units, mostly because of operational considerations. The army must not allow this thing to interfere with its operational ability.”

Laws that mandate the inclusion of women in combat units “place the military in a nearly impossible situation,” he said. “Expanding female service will be a grave mistake that will damage the prowess of the army. Women’s service in roles that are not suited to them might harm state security,” he warned.

Female service in combat units has been encouraged by the gender feminist lobby in Israel, which is spearheaded by groups underwritten by the radical New Israel Fund.

Gender feminists often describe women as wise and nurturing givers of life and denounce the army as a death machine led by violent males. However, they also inexplicably demand that women serve in combat roles that require them to kill people.